This invention relates to a process for providing a simulated etched or frosted look to a surface, as well as a product made from this process. More specifically, the invention relates to a coated label film that may be applied to a bottle to simulate the look of an etched or frosted outer surface.
A now-popular packaging style for wine and other beverages in glass bottles is to treat the exterior of the bottle with a physical or chemical etching process to create a soft matte or frosted appearance. The etch treatment can be all-over, in a design, or with area(s) omitted for screen printing.
Physical etching is accomplished by sandblasting fine particles against the surface to be decorated. In chemical etching, an acid is applied to react with the glass surface. Either method is laborious, costly, involves the use of harsh chemicals, and produces waste material requiring expensive disposal. Also, some assert that a glass bottle so treated may suffer impaired strength.
The work of others who have addressed this challenge are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,099,944; 5,571,557; and 6,214,424.
The present invention provides a film that can be used as a label and which is provided with an etched appearance by the application of the combination of at least two layers of inks. These coatings cause light to reflect at random on both layers and creates the effect of a deep frost finish which simulates the effect on the glass currently achieved by the chemical or physical etching process.
A more specific form of the invention is to prepare a heat-shrink over-wrap film label as described above and then apply to a regular glass bottle so as to create the appearance of an all-over etched treatment or a look of etched treatment to specific areas only.
According to another more specific version of the invention, a heat shrink overwrap sleeve may be printed as described above with a portion of the finish gradated from a full strength coating on the main body section of the container to a lesser degree in a continuous gradation over to a narrower neck part of the bottle to be covered. When the heat shrink film is applied on a container with a narrow neck, the degree of frost effect remains uniform, being counter-balanced by the lesser application of the frost effect in the area where a higher degree of shrinkage takes place.
Other details, aspects and features of the invention with respect to both process and product will be described below.